First Look: 2018 Audi A5 & S5 Sportback

Coming to market soon is the all-new 2018 Audi A5 and S5 Sportback, an increasingly popular play on the common four-door sedan the automakers like to call a coupe.

Based on the A4 series platform and sharing a nearly identical wheelbase, the new Sportback five-door coupe has a stretched roofline that’s longer and lower, and therefore sexier. Think of it as a smaller version of the popular A7.

The face is much the same as the A4 series and wraps down over the bulging front fenders to accommodate a slightly wider track. Rear quarters also have a more sculpted Coke bottle shape, giving it a more athletic stance.

Tail lights and the rear three-quarter view share much in common with the larger A7. A more aggressive lower fascia cleanly sets off dual exhaust outlets and a very subtle rear spoiler lip is molded into the rear hatch.

Coming in two versions at launch you can get the A5 which comes with a 2.0 liter TFSI four-cylinder engine with 252 horsepower and 278 pound-feet of torque along with standard Quattro all-wheel drive. Audi tells us it can achieve 0-60 in as little as 5.7 seconds.

The big power option however is the S5 you see here with its turbocharged 3.0 liter V6 good for 354 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque. With Quattro all-wheel drive and an eight-speed automatic transmission it can accelerate from 0-60 in some 4.5 seconds says Audi.

As said, the Quattro all-wheel drive is standard on both models and features a self locking center differential and a torque split of 40:60 front to rear. Through its braking system it can automatically vector torque to individual wheels.

Like the latest Audi A4, this one also gets a redesigned front five-link front suspension that offers superior wheel control and precision over a MacPherson strut layout and here also benefits from the steering-rack being mounted at the same level as the wheel centers.

Inside, the interior shares much of its design and content with the new A4 sedan including its wide array of genuine high quality materials of leather, aluminum and available carbon fibers or woods. The dash houses the available 12.3-inch Virtual Cockpit display, a feature we really liked in our last test of the Audi A4 sedan.

The big difference here over the sedan of course is the rear seating compartment and cargo area. While it is a sexy coupe, Audi retained three-across seating in the rear for practicality sake. Those seats can of course fold down in a 40/20/40 split to take advantage of a flat cargo floor.

When the new Audi A5 and S5 Sportback arrive at local Audi dealers literally any time now, pricing will start at $42,600 and range up to $50,200 for the three trim grades of the A5 Sportback.

The S5 Sportback comes only in the top two trims Premium Plus and Prestige, with pricing of $54,400 and $58,800 respectively.

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